Home Décor On Your iPad With Lowe’s and Home Depot Apps

Total Score: 29

Would you like to give your home a new look? Do you buy home decorating magazines to spark ideas? If the answer to either question is yes, then you will enjoy both the Home Depot Style Guide and Lowe’s Creative Ideas apps. Yes, Lowes and Home Depot are trying to sell you something. But is that a bad thing? Most do it yourself types already shop at one or both of these stores. I recommend getting both. Each offer great ideas for your home and there is no such thing as too much inspiration.

Price Rating = 5 Free. This full-featured app earns it’s keep by offering a shopping cart for products you see, like and want to order.

Ease of Use Rating = 5 It is easy to move between pages/articles in each app. Each have their own unique features.

Readability Rating = 5 Both products have easy to read fonts. Since Lowe’s is available on the iPhone, the images are smaller on it. On the other hand, it would be handy to take to the Lowe’s store to follow-up on the exact article that inspired you. But, you definitely have to pinch and zoom to read the text on an iPhone.

Will You Use It Rating = 5 Improving your home is a whole lot cheaper than buying a new one. Sometimes great change can be made with paint and a few decorating updates. Getting ideas from these trusted sources is helpful.

Downsides Rating = 0 So far nothing has come up as a downside. Both products are designed to sell their products, but they help you see how they might fit into your life.

Consumer Review Rating = 4 At the time I wrote this,Home Depot Style has 170 ratings with an average of four stars. Lowe’s Creative Ideas has 208 ratings with 3.5 stars.

Why Do You Need This App Rating = 5 If you are considering a home decorating project you will find these apps helpful.

How do they work?

When you open the Home Depot Style app, you see a magazine-like image and can only be viewed in landscape. There are tabs at the bottom for your cart, for sharing through Facebook, Twitter or email, subscribing to future articles, a list of articles, an index, a help screen and a menu. Clicking on menu takes you to a “how to use this app” screen. The instructions are simple and it works like most other apps. I kept getting stuck on this screen – you do have to tap done to get back to the app. There are step-by-step instructions for projects mentioned in the articles.

Once you download the Lowe’s Creative Ideas It shows up on your newsstand as a magazine subscription. It can be viewed in either portrait or landscape mode. Each page takes a second or two to come into focus. It is a minor distraction. You can see the page index by tapping on the bottom of the screen. Lowe’s has links to YouTube videos to help you understand how to create the projects. You can also use keyword search to find information within the magazine or you can bookmark something that interests you. This app does not have any social media sharing.

Both apps are content rich. You can see additional content by tapping. It is fascinating to see how color changes a room or the exterior of a house.

Both apps offer updates through email.

I have a lot of home renovation projects on the design board right now, so these two apps were particularly interesting to me. Whether you are ready to start a project or not, I think you will be inspired by the ideas available through these two apps.

I did not review these apps, but if you are looking for straight Lowe’s or Home Depot shopping apps, you can find them through the linked icons below. These apps have the standard features for store apps – shopping lists, purchase history and find a store options. Home depot has a buy/pick up at store option that is popular with users.